Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Chester & The Foot

Grandma Cheri thought it would be a good idea to have the grand kids come up with a name for Grandpa Bob's new kidney, the one generously donated yesterday by Ryan's little sister, Lacey. They landed on "Chester" a few weeks back, and we've been affectionately calling it such ever since.

Well, the very good news is that the kidney transplant seems to have been a big success thus far. Lacey & Bob reported to Mayo Clinic yesterday morning at 9:00am for an 11:00 am surgery, but the hospital was backed up and things got delayed about three hours. So somewhere around 2:00, they took Lacey back to start her first, successfully harvested her kidney and then started working on Bob. He was only born with one kidney to begin with (which we've learned occurs in about 1 in 750 people, mostly males), and that one failed last year. He's been on dialysis since the fall and it is no fun at all. The implant went well, and as soon as they hooked Chester up inside Bob, his body immediately began producing urine. In fact, the urine output was so great, that his body got depleted on potassium and sodium and he ended up with very painful leg cramps. But as of this morning, they got him largely regulated again and the cramps have subsided quite a bit.

Both are doing really well, although Lacey is super duper sore (like a C-Section I'm sure), but she's getting up a little and moving around like she's supposed to to start the rehabilitation. She's scheduled to leave tonight, if all goes well, and then will have several weeks of home recovery. Bob will be in through Friday, and then his life will be filled with several follow up appointments and therapies, etc. a week for the next month to make sure everything is working.

We are so grateful that all went well and that the countless prayers and fasting efforts were heard.

Now on to the foot...totally unrelated by blog worthy nonetheless...

Our Afty Cakes broke her foot last night and just got it casted this morning. It's blue. She'll be in it for three weeks, then a boot for three weeks, then they'll assess. She was out front skateboarding yesterday before dinner and had just finished up and was going to put it away, but somehow tripped up on it and kaboom....broken.

Again.

She broke the same foot three and a half years ago, jumping out of a swing at the park, the week before we were scheduled for our first ever, long-awaited Brown family trip to Disneyland. I had been so bummed about it because I thought our plans were ruined, but later learned that there is no better ticket for getting around Disneyland lines than a broken foot. Seriously, we had it made. We never had to wait in ride lines - they just have you escort your wheel-chaired person to the exit of every ride and you bypass it all. Amazing.

So it's been the long-standing joke in our family that the next time someone breaks a leg, we'll go to Disneyland again. We often joke about who wants to take one for the team. Now we've got to figure out how to make a quick Disneyland trip work amidst the chaos of March. We'll have to see if we can make something work - it's really too incredible of an opportunity to pass up you know - what with no lines and all. Still, the thought of being there potentially during spring break is almost overwhelming - so many bodies everywhere! Maybe we'll just have to do a long weekend and let the kiddos out of school for a day or two. We'll see.

I'm just trying to keep the glass half full perspective. Broken foot = Disneyland. Yes, we are super duper sad that Afty cracked the bone right as softball season is starting. They've had four awesome practices so far and her team is going to be fun to watch. Great coaching, great team, great #1 pitcher. Afty got drafted up to majors this year, so she and Barrett are on the same team again, which is awesome. Since their first game isn't until March 26th, which is about 3 weeks out, there might be a chance that she'll be able to catch the tail end of the season. We'll just have to see how she heals.

So Chester is good, the cast is blue, and Disneyland might be in our future too!

He, he, he...I'm a poet and don't know it...

6 comments:

  1. Oh, poor Afton. Bryant sends his sympathies. Funny how they broke their foot doing the same thing in front of their house! Maybe we should both go to Disneyland! What are the chances of each family having a broken foot at the same time?

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  2. Good idea Shari! Its a win win. (for us) I feel bad that Afton is missing out on her last basketball game and most of the softball games.

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  3. gotta love that Chester and the good he/she is doing...SUCH GREAT NEWS!! HOPE THAT LACEY AND BOY RECOUP QUICKLY!!
    AND AFTON...saw her today and she seemed be taking it well...
    HAVE FUN IN DISNEYLAND!!!

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  4. WHOOPS...
    that's BOB...not boy! (you know what I mean)
    SUCH GREAT NEWS!!!

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  5. I'm so happy the surgery was successful. We'll be praying for them. And poor Afty. Maybe you can get an orthopedist later to put on a cast just for the weekend so you can go to DL when the lines aren't so long. Like a Disneyland rain check.

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  6. Remember our DL trip the red shirts and running in to classmates, devastating to us teens:)good times good times.

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